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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: People, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

People, Evening, Glacier Point

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People, Evening, Glacier Point
People, Evening, Glacier Point

People, Evening, Glacier Point. Yosemite National Park, California. June 11, 2006. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small group gathers at Glacier Point to watch the sunset over Half Dome and Tenaya Canyon, Yosemite National park.

A small group of people gather along the edge of the cliff at Glacier Point to watch the sunset. This had been a much less wet winter than the current (2011) winter, and little snow is visible at the higher elevations even though it is early June.

Any visitor to the Valley should make a point of watching the sunset from this vantage point. Park visitors have been doing it for decades, and with good reason. From here the view includes the depths of Yosemite Valley, including some of the waterfalls and famous granite faces, Half Dome, the gorge of Tenaya Canyon, Mount Hoffman and the domes around North Dome, and out of the frame to the right the crest of the Sierra.

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Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L USM at 17mm (at B&H)
ISO 100, f/18, 1/60 second

Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Between Ireland and Townsley Lakes

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PlateauTarn2005|08|27: Tarn between Ireland and Townsley Lakes. Yosemite National Park. August 27, 2005. &copy: Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

Tarn between Ireland and Townsley Lakes. Yosemite National Park. August 27, 2005. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

This small tarn is located on a cross-country route* over a low ridge between Ireland and Townsley Lakes in Yosemite’s backcountry above Tuolumne Meadows. The plateau where this lake is located is one of may favorite parts of the park, and I visit it at least once each summer.

*For those wondering about the route: There is no trail between Townsley and Ireland Lakes, so you should only go here if you are comfortable with trail-less travel and have some experience with this. If you don’t, I’ll just point out that people have gotten lost and into other kinds of unfortunate trouble in places even more benign than this one. Please only regard this as a personal story and not as encouragement to travel here nor as a route guide.

That said, I often make my way to Townsley Lake from Fletcher Lake by any of the common routes and the many available variations, some of which almost look like faint trails. I like to either ascend the grassy slopes above (to the right when approaching from Fletcher) Townsley directly from the lake or else bypass the lake and head straight for the upper part of this slope. From the top of this slope a large alpine tundra area dotted by a few small tarns appears before me. I take a route that heads generally toward the left side of an apparent cone-shaped prominence on the ridge between me and Ireland Lake – there are many ways to get there and I don’t always follow the same route. Eventually I cross over some steep slabs to top out on this ridge, from which I pick out a reasonable route down to the trail coming up toward Ireland Lake from the left.

keywords: tarn, pond, townsley, fletcher, lake, ireland, mountain, ridge, meadow, rock, creek, alpine, sierra, nevada, yosemite, national park, backpack, hike, camp, cross country, landscape, scenic, stock